HGTV’s “Married to Actual Property” is likely to be staged, however Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson’s love for one another certain is not. The DJs-turned-TV hosts’ bond seeps by way of the display screen and is mirrored of their lovely household. However regardless of every thing they’ve going for them, Sherrod and Jackson’s lives have not at all times been good. The 2 confronted loads of ups and downs and jumped over many a hurdle collectively — and alone. Of their twenty years as a pair, they’ve gone by way of marital troubles, well being battles, and household loss. 

However by then, Sherrod had already developed thick pores and skin. In spite of everything, her life had been mired by difficulties since childhood. For a time, she needed to reside along with her grandparents of their Philadelphia house, the place area was restricted. The perfect they might do for her was flip a closet into her room. “I lived in a closet, actually. All that was within the room was a mattress, that is all that would slot in there. I might open my arms and contact each partitions,” she advised Vibe in 2015.

As a substitute of remembering that point with grief, Sherrod retains it near her coronary heart as a reminder of how far she’s come. To this present day, the closet is her favourite room in her house. “My closet is the place I am going for peace. It is my hiding area,” she mentioned. Sherrod has proved she is not afraid to face obstacles head-on, and he or she introduced that angle into her marriage. They could have stumbled, however Sherrod and Jackson at all times stick with it.

Within the early days of her relationship with Mike Jackson, Egypt Sherrod tried to push him away. It wasn’t as a result of she was uninterested; Sherrod feared he would find yourself hurting her like her exes had. “The issues that we do in our present relationships are a mirrored image of previous bulls***,” she mentioned on the “Woman Cease Playin” podcast in 2023. Sherrod skilled relationship traumas up to now, although she didn’t see how they affected her actions towards Jackson.

However he helped her see it. “He known as me out on my mess and advised me, ‘You’re taking it out on me — every thing from each different man that did you fallacious,” she mentioned on “Black Love” in 2019 (by way of XoNecole). As dangerous because it is likely to be, Sherrod’s expertise is frequent. “If we have endured a number of unfavorable experiences, it is solely pure to turn into overly cautious,” Susan Winter, NYC Relationship Skilled and creator of the “Love À La Carte Methodology,” completely advised Nicki Swift. “We’ll begin to hunt for crimson flags, betrayal, and inauthentic habits in our present companion.”

When poisonous relationships finish, it is essential to handle the trauma to make room for brand new, real love. “We have to evaluate our participation (in addition to our exes) and handle the emotional baggage left behind,” Winter advised us. That is what Sherrod did. After Jackson alerted her to the issue, she began going to remedy. “We’ve to get our minds proper,” she mentioned.

The seven-year itch might or is probably not an actual phenomenon, however Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson imagine it exists. Sherrod and Jackson went by way of a tough patch round that point, which led them to {couples} remedy. “I do know that the T-word or no matter, that remedy phrase, scares lots of people, but it surely saved us in a really huge means,” she mentioned within the “Woman Cease Enjoying” interview. Counseling helped them work on their communication. “What we have been doing was speaking at each other and never to each other,” she mentioned.

The hiccup got here when Sherrod observed she had put her personal wants on the again burner all through the primary a number of years of their relationship. “I fell out of this area of simply eager to make him pleased,” she advised host Koereyelle DuBose. She felt she had misplaced contact with herself and her pursuits, a sense that put a pressure on the wedding. “It induced an itch for me,” she mentioned. Sherrod ultimately realized to place her wants first whereas nonetheless prioritizing Jackson and their relationship. “I acquired again on monitor with my targets,” she mentioned.

However studying to do each was a course of, one which was solely doable due to counseling. That is as a result of it confirmed them the right way to break generational cycles of poor communication in all types of relationships. “It taught us the right way to use instruments that we did not have, that we did not watch our dad and mom with,” she mentioned. 

A bit over a yr into their marriage, Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson welcomed their first baby collectively, Kendall, in January 2012. Whereas welcoming her daughter modified her life, Sherrod’s journey into motherhood was additionally laborious. She developed postpartum despair that affected her vanity. And people points took a toll on her marriage. “I used to be in a really uncomfortable area with myself,” she mentioned on the 2019 Black Love Summit.

As a consequence, Sherrod prevented intimacy with Jackson — one thing he had a tough time coping with. “I did not need my husband to see me bare, not to mention be intimate with each other anymore,” she mentioned. For Jackson, it wasn’t simply the dearth of intercourse that bothered him, however not realizing what had induced the abrupt modifications in his spouse’s character. “Not understanding what was occurring was extra irritating than something as a result of I might really feel there was a wall being put up,” he mentioned.

The primary downside was that Sherrod was initially unaware she had postpartum despair. After studying an article about it, she talked to her physician and launched into her therapeutic journey. Given her expertise, Sherrod had zero tolerance for individuals criticizing her physique after she gave delivery to Harper in February 2019. “I’ve completely NO SHAME about my physique … When you’ve a child over 40 it hits totally different,” she captioned an Instagram submit in response to a social media consumer who questioned the dimensions of her bottom.

In case you or somebody you understand wants assist with psychological well being, please contact the Disaster Textual content Line by texting HOME to 741741, name the Nationwide Alliance on Psychological Sickness helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or go to the Nationwide Institute of Psychological Well being web site.

Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson’s daughters are seven years aside, an age hole that wasn’t by design. After welcoming Kendall, Sherrod struggled to conceive a second time. She confronted fibroids and endometriosis for 5 years, to the purpose she believed she would not have one other organic baby. She began speaking about adopting, however Jackson wasn’t on board. “It induced a tough pause in our relationship,” she mentioned within the “Woman Cease Enjoying” interview.

For Sherrod, a second child was a giant a part of the household she had envisioned. “I felt like he was being egocentric as a result of he already had two,” she mentioned, referring to Jackson’s oldest daughter, Simone, from a earlier relationship. As they labored by way of these variations, Sherrod realized she was three months pregnant. Whereas she welcomed two wholesome youngsters, neither expertise was with out complication. Kendall even needed to be born early. “I had preeclampsia and horrible edema that was spreading,” she advised Essence in 2020.

Harper’s being pregnant went easily, however Sherrod skilled a terrifying C-section facet impact two days later. “[I] laid down to fall asleep, it felt like I used to be drowning. I could not breathe,” she mentioned. Jackson took her to the hospital, the place medical doctors found liquid had constructed up in her lungs following the surgical procedure. The medical emergency additionally affected Sherrod’s breastfeeding plans. “I could not breast feed because the docs needed to dry me out as a result of fluid in my lungs,” she shared within the Instagram submit about body-shaming.

For 3 months, Egypt Sherrod and Mike Jackson labored as a crew to determine why their daughter Harper was having bother respiratory. “Harper has been having bother respiratory at night time and Mike and I’ve been taking turns holding her whereas sleeping in a chair so she will be upright and get air,” Sherrod captioned an Instagram submit. They lastly realized her adenoids have been blocking her airways, and medical doctors urged they need to be eliminated. In October 2023, the 4-year-old woman placed on her courageous face and acquired prepped for surgical procedure.

Sherrod and Jackson have been grateful that Harper was going to get aid quickly. “Lastly right now was her adenoids elimination surgical procedure and I’m so happy with my child. She was courageous and though nervous, by no means freaked out,” Sherrod wrote. Positioned behind the nasal passage, the adenoids assist struggle off infections by catching germs that enter the physique by way of the mouth and nostril. Nevertheless, when adenoids turn into enlarged, they could pose points like those Harper skilled.

Enlarged adenoids would possibly occur due to allergy symptoms or an infection. When treating the underlying trigger fails, surgical procedure is likely to be the following plan of action. Often called adenoidectomy, the process requires normal anesthesia, however most kids get better inside a few days. Harper dealt with her adenoidectomy effectively and spent a couple of days receiving additional cuddles. “All is effectively and he or she is house with me resting. However right now my 4 yr outdated is my SHERO! Go Harper Bean,” Sherrod shared. 

In 2022, Mike Jackson suffered a heartbreaking household loss. Simply weeks after giving delivery, Jackson’s cousin, Ellen James-Robinson, died from sepsis. That is when the physique has an excessive response to an an infection and begins to assault its personal organs. When sepsis units in, it is essential to catch it as early as doable. With each hour that it goes untreated, the chance of demise goes up by 7.6%. That is why Jackson and Sherrod needed to handle their cousin’s demise.

James-Robinson had sought medical assist a number of occasions, solely to be despatched again house after being reassured nothing was fallacious. “That is one thing that we’re seeing increasingly — I skilled it proper after I gave delivery to Harper — simply medical doctors not listening, not considering that we all know our personal physique,” Sherrod mentioned in an Instagram video. She urged girls to advocate for his or her well being and males to imagine girls after they say one thing is not proper. “This might have been prevented,” she mentioned.

Jackson, for his half, known as out the medical neighborhood for dismissing girls’s complaints, particularly these associated to childbirth. “DIG A LITTLE DEEPER. My cousin might’ve nonetheless been alive if the medical doctors would’ve cared a bit extra. Researched a bit extra!” he wrote on Instagram. He additionally underlined the racial disparities in maternal demise within the U.S. “Black girls are thrice extra more likely to die from a pregnancy-related trigger than White girls,” he wrote, citing info supplied by the CDC.

Egypt Sherrod had at all times been shut along with her grandmother, Ruthie Mae. When the matriarch advised her final minute she would not attend her marriage ceremony, Sherrod was seething. She could not imagine her “mother mother” might do this. She was so harm that she stopped speaking to Ruthie. A yr and a half of silent remedy glided by when Ruthie instantly died. Then Sherrod realized Ruthie had been affected by dementia in secret.

Sherrod remains to be crammed with remorse. “She was most certainly struggling along with her well being however making an attempt to save lots of me the stress and grief throughout my marriage ceremony week,” she captioned a 2019 Fb submit. Regardless of her regret, Sherrod centered on what she realized from Ruthie, up to now and presently. “She advised me to verify I made time to journey and to at all times earn my very own cash and be unbiased,” she wrote. In the meantime, Ruthie’s demise taught her a lesson in empathy. “Be extra compassionate and understanding of what others could also be coping with,” she penned.

Although they weren’t talking, Sherrod believes Ruthie knew how a lot she liked her. Shortly after her grandmother’s demise, a buddy of Sherrod’s photographed her in nature and unknowingly captured solar rays shining down on her. Sherrod had been questioning whether or not Ruthie was happy with her and if she had joined her husband in heaven. “Little did I do know they have been each proper there with me!!” she captioned a 2021 Instagram submit, referring to the solar streaks.